A display device typified by a liquid crystal display is used in various information processing apparatuses such as a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistance (PDA), an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) and a personal computer. In recent years, liquid crystal displays having a wide visible area are in practical use. Also, liquid crystal displays are required to have various light distribution characteristics along with the trend of enlarging display sizes and widening varieties of purpose of use. In particular, in order not to be peeped into by others from a view point of an information leak, need for restricting a visible area and need for not emitting light in an unnecessary direction are growing.
As an image forming apparatus to meet the above-mentioned needs, there has been proposed one in which a micro louver is added to the display device to restrict the visible area (or, the emission area) as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1985-140322 (hereinafter, referred to as patent document 1) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1989-25123 (hereinafter, referred to as patent document 2), and some of such apparatuses are now in practical use.